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T O P I C R E V I E W

Tonyq

A feature film set in the heart of the current Russian space programme and filmed largely in legendary locations across Russia and Kazakhstan is due for a cinema release in summer 2011.

'Baikonur' directed by German film-maker Veit Helmer, is variously described as a romance, comedy and adventure story. The plot focuses on a young Frenchwoman, Julie Mahe (Marie de Villepin), whose ambition to fly in space is realised when she is launched on a Russian Soyuz mission to the International Space Station as a ‘space tourist’. Julie’s mission is watched on TV by a Kazakh young peasant villager (Alexander Asochakov) who makes a living scavenging and selling fallen and discarded rocket parts.

The movie was shot between September and November 2010 at locations including the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Star City near Moscow, and on the Kazakh Steppe. Helmer secured authorisations from various Russian agencies for his actors to use genuine cosmonaut training equipment at Star City, including the centrifuge, Soyuz and ISS simulators and the giant tanks used for EVA training.

There is an initial trailer for the German version:

According to the film's website, Russian and English language versions will follow.

Philip

New feature film by German director Veit Helmer set in the heart of the current Russian manned space program about the training of a female cosmonaut. The young French woman got a seat onboard a Soyuz mission and after her mission falls outside the usual recovery area...

Editor's note: Threads merged.

Tonyq

Thank Phillip for 'bumping' this thread. I suspect that you picked this interesting movie up from my article in the current issue of Spaceflight.

I was fortunate to talk to the lovely Mlle. de Villepin about her role in this movie, during which she did all her own 'stunts'. This included diving in the neutral buoyancy facility at Star City, several zero G flights in the ESA A300, and spending several hours locked in the Soyuz simulator while wearing a Sokol spacesuit.

Baikonur opens, initially in Germany, on 1st September.

Here are a couple of images which were supplied to me in connection with the 'Spaceflight' piece.

Philip

Indeed, great to know they could use a Progress launch vehicle to film the "entrance" to the Soyuz capsule

eurospace

Movie theatres at Berlin already distributed flyers for this movie when I was there in late July.

spacekiwi

Any ideas when we might see it in the US?

Tonyq

quote:Originally posted by spacekiwi:Any ideas when we might see it in the US?